Kanye West slammed for using photo of Whitney Houston's drug-covered bathroom as album cover
Kanye West may have a paid a large sum of money to get his hands on Whitney Houston's drug-covered bathroom picture but it seems like the rapper has managed to upset a family member of the late singer. Damon Elliott, who is Whitney's cousin, spoke to People and expressed how upset he felt after she got to know about the picture.
Damon recalls that he did not know about the picture until her daughter called and informed him. “[She was] frantic. She sent me this picture from the album cover and I immediately got sick to my stomach because it took me right back to six years ago,” he said.
Damon added that he was quite taken aback after he saw the picture on the cover for Kanye's upcoming music album.
“I was actually in shock because I’m in the music business,” he said. “I’ve watched the train wreck happening, but I didn’t think he’d go this far in invading someone’s family privacy," he added referring to the recent social media scandal Kanye has been involved in.
“To do something like this for publicity to sell records, it’s absolutely disgusting,” he continued. “It hurt my family and my daughter. It’s petty. It’s tacky.” Damon said that Whitney “never did anything to him” and claims that he never heard from Kanye when he licensed the picture or even after he used it for the cover.
“I just want him to tell me why he did it,” he added. “What is the creative side of this? What’s the point? It shows no creativity.” Damon added that he tried to contact Whitney's mother, Cissy Houston and inform her of the same. “She had no idea. I’m sure she knows about it now, though," he said.
Damon wants Kanye to change the cover and call to apologize to the entire family. While he does not know when he'll get to talk to Kanye, he sure does know what he will say.
“What were you thinking? Did you think this through? And if you did, why did you do this?” he said. “Because you’re hurting people. It knocked the wind out of me last night. When someone passes, you try to mourn and move on and remember the good times. Why are you going to pay $85,000 to bring something to the forefront?”